Report 269: Mental Element in Homicide

This Report makes recommendations for reform of the law of homicide in Scotland.  It recommends statutory offences of murder and culpable homicide to better reflect the mental element in each offence and set out a clearer boundary between the two offences, using language and concepts that are appropriate for 21st century Scotland.  The Report also recommends a statutory partial defence of provocation restricted to provocation by acts of physical violence.  Under this proposed defence, the sexual infidelity of an intimate partner would no longer qualify as a provocative act on the basis of which an accused can establish a partial defence to murder.